The present invention relates to magnetic hard disk drives. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method of adjusting the flying height of magnetic heads over magnetic storage media through an electrical pad on the slider.
Hard disk drives are common information storage devices essentially consisting of a series of rotatable disks, or other magnetic storage mediums, that are accessed by magnetic reading and writing elements. These data transferring elements, commonly known as transducers, are typically carried by and embedded in a slider body that is held in a close relative position over discrete data tracks formed on a disk to permit a read or write operation to be carried out. In order to properly position the transducer with respect to the disk surface, an air bearing surface (ABS) formed on the slider body experiences a fluid air flow that provides sufficient lift force to “fly” the slider and transducer above the disk data tracks. The high speed rotation of a magnetic disk generates a stream of air flow or wind along its surface in a direction substantially parallel to the tangential velocity of the disk. The air flow cooperates with the ABS of the slider body which enables the slider to fly above the spinning disk. In effect, the suspended slider is physically separated from the disk surface through this self-actuating air bearing.
Some of the major objectives in ABS designs are to fly the slider and its accompanying transducer as close as possible to the surface of the rotating disk, and to uniformly maintain that constant close distance regardless of variable flying conditions. The height or separation gap between the air bearing slider and the spinning magnetic disk is commonly defined as the flying height. In general, the mounted transducer or read/write element flies only approximately less than one micro-inch (25.4 nm) above the surface of the rotating disk. The flying height of the slider is viewed as one of the most critical parameters affecting the magnetic disk reading and recording capabilities of a mounted read/write element. A relatively small flying height allows the transducer to achieve greater resolution between different data bit locations on the disk surface, thus improving data density and storage capacity. With the increasing popularity of lightweight and compact notebook type computers that utilize relatively small yet powerful disk drives, the need for a progressively lower flying height has continually grown.
As shown in FIG. 1 an ABS design known for a common catamaran slider 5 may be formed with a pair of parallel rails 2 and 4 that extend along the outer edges of the slider surface facing the disk. Other ABS configurations including three or more additional rails, with various surface areas and geometries, have also been developed. The two rails 2 and 4 typically run along at least a portion of the slider body length from the leading edge 6 to the trailing edge 8. The leading edge 6 is defined as the edge of the slider that the rotating disk passes before running the length of the slider 5 towards a trailing edge 8. As shown, the leading edge 6 may be tapered despite the large undesirable tolerance typically associated with this machining process. The transducer or magnetic element 7 is typically mounted at some location along the trailing edge 8 of the slider as shown in FIG. 1. The rails 2 and 4 form an air bearing surface on which the slider flies, and provide the necessary lift upon contact with the air flow created by the spinning disk. As the disk rotates, the generated wind or air flow runs along underneath, and in between, the catamaran slider rails 2 and 4. As the air flow passes beneath the rails 2 and 4, the air pressure between the rails and the disk increases thereby providing positive pressurization and lift. Catamaran sliders generally create a sufficient amount of lift, or positive load force, to cause the slider to fly at appropriate heights above the rotating disk.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, a head gimbal assembly 40 often provides the slider with multiple degrees of freedom such as vertical spacing, or pitch angle and roll angle which describe the flying height of the slider. As shown in FIG. 2, a suspension 74 holds the HGA 40 over the moving disk 76 (having edge 70) and moving in the direction indicated by arrow 80. In operation of the disk drive shown in FIG. 2, an actuator 72 (such as a voice-coil motor (VCM)) moves the HGA over various diameters of the disk 76 (e.g., inner diameter (ID), middle diameter (MD) and outer diameter (OD)) over arc 75.
Ideally, the head-disk spacing should stay unchanged at different temperatures. However, the flying height or head-disk spacing changes with environmental temperature fluctuations. The reasons for the flying height change are the changes in head geometry such as crown and camber. At extremely low temperatures, for example, the flying height change can be up to a few nanometers due to head geometry change, leading to degraded recording performance or malfunction of the head. To solve this problem, two methods have been used to compensate the flying height change at low temperatures. In one method, a heating coil is built in the head, which causes the read-write area to protrude. The actual head-disk spacing remains unchanged. Since the heating coil is added to the head in the wafer level, this method adds complications to the overall manufacturing process. In an alternative method, a high current is run through the writer to heat up and to protrude the pole area, leading to flying height adjustment. As can be seen, both techniques try to achieve protruding of the pole tip area. This may move the minimum flying height point to the protruded pole-tip area, leaving it unprotected against possible contact from distortions on the disk surface. dr